The present disclosure relates to the voting systems for elections. More specifically, it provides a system and method for identifying and/or recovering stranded voting ballots.
A variety of electronic voting systems are well known. Such systems include, for example, paper ballot systems in which ballots are scanned for electronic tabulation, direct recording electronic (DRE) voting systems that record votes directly, and other electronic voting techniques. For at least some of these voting systems, locally networked voting systems have become popular. In some embodiments of networked voting systems, votes may be cast on multiple voting terminals and then accumulated on one or more other networked controller devices. If communication between a voting terminal and the controller fails, a ballot may be “stranded” upon the voting terminal. Prior art techniques typically involve a limited number of attempts to transfer a ballot from a voting terminal to a controller. If that attempt fails, user notification typically was not provided that a ballot was stranded. Stranded ballots could be detected by comparison of ballot counters on each networked voting terminal, or by visually comparing the ballot count on the controller device with the number of voters checked-in at the poll. Recovery of a stranded ballot could involve recovering all of the cast vote records (CVRs) stored on the voting terminals and analyzing the entire set of data. It would be desirable to provide improved communication and techniques for dealing with stranded ballots.